Peter Liu - Personal

What’s Your Type?

February 13, 2011 By Peter 1 Comment

The thing about moving to a new place is you get to start over in a way. You make new friends, build a whole new social circle and people get to know you all over again. When you meet people through your business, you don’t always get to be yourself, at least not completely. Corporate training takes over, especially when you’ve had over a quarter century of mentoring in how to behave in a business situation.

Having lived on Maui for 5 years now, people who I consider friends know how introverted I really am, but the people who only know me in business circles are often surprised when I reveal that fact, especially since I’m so engaged in the online world through social media. It’s a testimonial to all that professional training.

A little over a decade ago, my management team at iPlanet eCommerce Solutions (the AOL/Sun “alliance” that ensued after AOL bought Netscape) went through a top down series of Myers Briggs exercises to help build team harmony. If you know something about how your co-worker ticks, you’re more likely to work together more effectively. At least that’s the theory. Here are my results…

If you’re curious about the exercise, here are a few links to browse:
The Myers & Briggs Foundation
The Jung Typology Test™ (An approximation of the real exercise.)
Search for more sources…

So, what’s your type?

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: jung typology test, myers briggs, personality type

Moosh Is Off To The Rainbow Bridge

June 28, 2009 By Peter Leave a Comment

Our Moosh departed for the Rainbow Bridge at around noon today, after bringing immense joy to our lives for 11 years.

Her IBD had progressed to the point where trips to the litter box were so painful, she would throw up in reaction, making it almost impossible to keep any nutrients in her frail body.

We had a glimmer of hope a few days ago, when we discovered that she could (and would) eat raw marlin (her favorite besides ahi). For several days before that, she was eating maybe a tablespoon of prescription cat food per day, then throwing it all up. Our hopes were dashed day before yesterday, when she threw up the fish and stopped eating altogether.

IBD often progresses into lymphoma, and we suspect that’s where she was with this, but it’s hard to know for sure without a biopsy, and there was no way she could withstand that at this stage. The most we could do was to help her manage the pain and try to keep her as comfortable as possible.

Sometime last week, she let out a shrill yowl out of nowhere in the middle of the night after a trip to the litter box, and it became obvious she was in pain most, if not all of the time. We couldn’t let her live in constant pain, and we couldn’t let her starve herself to death. It was time.

Right to the end, she was constantly looking for ways to ignore the illness and just have things be normal. This morning, we woke to find her on our bathroom counter waiting for us to turn on the faucet for her, then she went down the stairs into the family room and looked out the window with Truffle, part of her normal morning routine.

It wasn’t long however, before she retired to the futon, and finally underneath the guest room bed, where she’d been hiding from the world the last few weeks. Neither Kathy nor I could get her the least bit interested in food.

After losing Widgit, Moosh was the last real tie we had to our life in California. Our world will never be the same without her. Truffle, for her part, kept trying to get Moosh to play with her, as if playing would make everything okay. As we learned from Widgit’s passing, when you can’t play anymore, it’s simply time to go to the Rainbow Bridge.

Aloha, dear loved one. Thank you for the cherished memories. You’ll always be our sweet baby Moosh. A hui hou…

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: cat, ibd, kitty, moosh, rainbow bridge

My 25 Random Facts From Facebook

February 4, 2009 By Peter Leave a Comment

For those who aren’t connected with me on Facebook, there’s this thing going around where you get tagged in someone’s 25 random facts, which means you’re being asked to respond with yours. If you know me, you know that I’m not all that comfortable revealing things about myself, so it took two tags before I reluctantly decided to do mine. It ended up being a lot more work than I anticipated, so after all that effort, I thought I might as well share it here too.

1. I was born in Hong Kong, but my dad moved us every few years, usually to a different country. “Home” is not a concept I really understand. Where I am is where I am.

2. My parents spoke several languages and my first language was Cantonese because of where we were living at the time. I didn’t speak English until I was 3, and my parents tell me I didn’t realize it was English. They say I often started a sentence in one language and ended it in another. I often dream in languages I don’t understand.

3. I play the guitar once in a while to relieve stress and look for inspiration, but not well. I used to play really well when I was teenager, but life happened and my Martin D-28 spent most of its years since in its case. I almost sold it on eBay twice.

4. My ambition is to be able to play “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” by Francisco Tárrega before I die.

5. I sang in choirs and theater all through high school and college and met my wife in community theater years later. (Ever wonder what the geeks in Silicon Valley do when they’re not at work? They wear tights.) I haven’t sung a single note in almost two decades.

6. I spent 21 years in the computer industry before giving myself permission to pursue a career as a photographer.

7. My first serious camera was my dad’s Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, which I got when I was about 15. For the life of me, I don’t remember what I did with it.

8. I have tested ISTP, ISTJ and INTJ in the Myers Briggs. Don’t know why it isn’t consistent.

9. I’m a scuba diver with over 1000 dives.

10. I swam competitively in high school.

11. I’ve had some formal training in the kitchen. I’m not a bad cook.

12. I got a black belt in karate when I was 15. I don’t practice.

13. I’m an aspiring novelist who can’t find a story.

14. I love good sci-fi (rivets, not dragons).

15. I have a fear of heights. Not proud.

16. I have driven from coast to coast twice. Next time, I’m bringing a camera.

17. I respect and support other people’s rights to their religious beliefs, but I just can’t find it within myself to place my spiritual faith in a man made construct.

18. I worship coffee.

19. I worship red wine.

20. I worship good jazz.

21. I worship passive income. Took me too long to learn about the concept, so I’m making up for lost time.

22. I’m neither a PC nor a Mac. I look forward to the day when the browser becomes the desktop and the OS is irrelevant.

23. I don’t subscribe to the notion of traditional breakfast foods. It’s not unusual for me to heat up last night’s dinner and call it breakfast. I didn’t even used to eat breakfast until my doctor told me to.

24. I had just moved to the Bay Area when the ’89 quake happened.

25. We’d just moved to Maui when the last big quake happened. (Is there a pattern here?)

Filed Under: Personal, Social Media Tagged With: facebook

The Photographer's Kitten

January 14, 2009 By Peter Leave a Comment

There’s nothing like trying to work around a kitten skittering all over your equipment—light stands, backgrounds, wires—attacking anything that happens to catch her eye… tabs, labels, plugs. It’s all a game, and it’s all fair game at that.

I wasn’t a working photographer when Widgit was a kitten, so this is uncharted territory. Can’t leave anything unattended. Everything takes twice as long.

Lock her out? Heh… right… you try it. Maybe it’s time I got an actual studio.

And as regards the shaved tummy, we thought getting her fixed would slow her down for a few days. Well, isn’t something like surgery supposed to do that?

Aloha…

Filed Under: Fun, Personal, Photography Tagged With: black cat, cat, domestic short hair, kitten, photograher, Photography, truffle

Remembering Widgit

December 6, 2008 By Peter Leave a Comment

Our little Widgit was sedated and went peacefully yesterday evening. She was a fighter. We miss her terribly.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: cat, kitty, norwegian forest cat, slideshow, video, widgit

Aloha, Dear Friend

December 5, 2008 By Peter Leave a Comment

I just scheduled Widgit’s euthanasia for 4:30 this afternoon, a little less than 6 hours from now. I know I’m a mess of emotion inside, but as usual, I’m in task-oriented mode right now and don’t feel a thing. I don’t know how my psyche does that, but I know I can always rely on it to see me through in times like this. I’ll probably be a mess on the other side of it. Always am.

When we lost Padi a little over 10 years ago, it was different. We had her leg removed at the vet’s recommendation in hopes of getting rid of her cancer, but the surgery proved to be too much for a 20-year-old kitty and she went downhill after spending some time back home. By the time we got her into the pet emergency hospital, she was already too far gone, so the decision was clear and immediate. There was no waiting, no scheduling. We said our goodbyes, I held her in my arms while the injection took effect and it was over.

This time it’s a lot harder because we had a tough decision to make after several weeks of heartache, but it’s better too. I have a chance to spend her last day with her, watch her lay in the sun enjoying the Maui breezes, and we get to keep each other company one last time. How often do you get a chance to say goodbye to a loved one properly? I even took a few photos, though I’ve been hesitant to do that lately, not being sure if Kathy or I would want to remember her this way, our tough little Widgit, now less than half her original weight, so skinny and frail.

Today, on her last day, I decided I had to. I’ve taken many photos of her since she found me that day in the park 14 years ago, when she was only 5 months old. When I started shooting professionally, I couldn’t have asked for a more patient, cooperative and photogenic test subject to help me take my new equipment through its paces, which is ironic given her personality. She was my muse and my inspiration during that transition period in my life. We photographers are story tellers by nature, and I owed it to both of us to complete this one.

Sitting with her now, on the lanai, looking through this chronicle of her life, I’m happy and grateful for the time we’ve had together, and unspeakably sad she won’t be there when I wake up in the morning. I only hope we’ve appreciated her love and companionship enough. We’ve certainly loved her enough. She’ll always be our “little Widgit”.

Aloha, my dear friend. Thank you. Be safe.